Tea Room Bunting

It's been a lovely day - slightly warm and slightly windy. It feels like spring has arrived on the Scottish West Coast. 

I love looking out of the kitchen window at the daffodils - there is a riot of colour in the garden - it really lifts the spirits. Last week passed by in a bit of a blur, all work and no time for craft.

So, it was rather nice tonight, when I got home from work, to spend a little time sewing together some bunting - when I really should have been making the dinner or doing some ironing. Making the triangles is the easy part - working out the distances and the overall length is a bit fiddly.

The bunting is for the top of a dresser in the tea room so I picked some fabrics that I thought would go well together and would look nice hanging from the dresser. I couldn't resist using some teapot fabric and the carrot fabric is rather jolly.

I'm going to try and do a little bit of craft every day this week. I am picturing myself with yarn and hook up on the swing seat with the sun shining and the birds singing.

Short and Sweet Saturday

Taking a leaf out of The Country Housewife's Book and making full advantage of some dry windy weather to collect some kindling for the stove.

Tea Room

One of my friends has taken on the lease for a tea room and after many weeks of hard work - she has turned what was a tired and worn out tea room into something very lovely! I'm going to be working for her a day or so every week.

Today was opening day and with a sense of great trepidation and anticipation we faced the public. Everyone was so nice, it was busy and the day passed by in a complete blur.

On the way home tonight there was a wonderful sunset.......a lovely end to the day. When I have five minutes and I am not so tired, I need to plan in some craft time - there are a couple of things I need to make and block of the week is turning into block of the year!

Singing Sands

After a fairly mixed week of weather, yesterday was decidedly promising with blue skies and sunshine. So, after a hastily prepared picnic, we headed off to do a walk to a beach called the Singing Sands.

We stepped out of the car and tried to ignore the rather icy blast of wind - home is very sheltered from most wind directions and it can easily lull you into a false sense of security - it's quite windy over here I declared - stating the obvious as usual.

Undeterred we headed off, the first part of the walk hugs the bay and is quite exposed (cold), but once we headed into the trees we were out of the wind (warm and springlike).

We cut the path a bit and crossed by the ford - the burn was quite fast flowing and we had to watch not to loose our footing. I speak from experience as I had done something similar on a walk one winter and ended up dripping wet and freezing - saved only from exposure by my brother-in-law's foresight in having brought spare clothing. We stopped to watch a Sea Eagle soaring high above us.

The sun was shining which was lovely and it was casting long shadows. I love the way I look like I am wearing a traditional Dutch costume!

We headed into the trees and a scent of pine was in the air. Although the path never wanders very far from the shore, when you are in among the trees you feel like you have entered another world. You can hear signs of life, but it always seems like it is just out of sight, forever hidden among the dense greenery.

We took an old path, an off shoot, from the main one. It was pretty wet - thank you wellingtons - and at times difficult to follow, but it cuts a chunk off the distance and places you nicely between the line of beaches on this part of the coast. You can hear the sea for ages before you clear the trees and actually see it. Bright blue skies and white horses on the waves and not a footprint on the sand.

We found a sheltered spot among the rocks and had our picnic. One of the coves had lots of seaweed washed up and an assortment of what can only be described as Tribbles - we couldn't decided whether they had been washed up or had been formed by the action of the wind  - like tumbleweed - on this particular beach. This one looked almost like a bird's nest.

It is such a special place - I first came here about 26 years ago and I still get the same thrill now when I'm on the beach as I did back then.

There are lots of dunes on the furthest beach. It was used to train troops for the Normandy landings during the Second World War. It's hard to imagine now, but the rusted remnants of shrapnel tell otherwise. You could see the layers of sand building up.

The wind was whipping up the sand - it really does sing when you scuff your feet along it.

A perfectly lovely walk, a perfectly lovely day.

Short and Sweet Saturday

This week has gone by in a bit of a blur - my mood seems to be matching the weather - all over the place! For some light relief I have been working on some bunting and I am using this pattern from Felted Button - some very tempting patterns on this lovely site.

Can I move in?

Let's not talk about the weather.....I think we have had our two days of summer......I was planning a garden tidy up, but I have put it on hold.....I'm waiting for better weather.....I may be waiting for some time.

However, my mood has been brightened by the regular appearance of the young tom cat from along the road. Not everyone in this house is so enthusiastic, I might add.

We have been referring to him as Stinky Pete - I can't explain the naming process - it just happens sometimes, he's not stinky and his name is probably not Pete - but it seems to suit him.

He's a talker - he loves to chat and he's a walker - he likes to run along beside you. He's been here for most of the past week - napping on a mat in the outbuildings and guarding the front door (that we never use) by sitting on the doormat, no doubt confusing everyone that knows us when they drive past!

He would like to come inside. I am resisting. He knows how to operate the cat flap. I am keeping it locked. He has a very pink nose. I let him come into the kitchen and he had a cuddle on my knee.

How could I resist those chunky paws?

I will resolve to not think about cats and try and concentrate on some craft instead.

Short and Sweet Saturday

Working on the second side of the cushion today and reflecting on a week of contact with friends old and new.

Birthday Gift

I've been asked out for lunch tomorrow to celebrate the birthday of a work colleague. So tonight, as a relief from a week without craft, I grabbed some yarn and a crochet hook and made a brooch. I used some Jamieson's of Shetland Spindrift that I had used in a previous project (Tiny Owl Knits - Sweet Robin Wristees)  - I have just had a look at the Jamieson's site and the colours are so tempting!

Hoping to do a bit more crafting over the next few days......I've really missed it this week.

March Sunset

I keep pinching myself....we have gone more than 24 hours without rain......for the first time in what feels like months! Today was lovely and bright - I can't say it was warm, but who cares it was dry! The birds were singing, a woodpecker was hammering on a dead oak and I was able to hang out 2 loads of washing and take them in dry!

As the light started to fade tonight, we bolted our tea and headed off in the car to watch the sunset.

The colours changed minute by minute. The sky darkened from a lovely rosy pink to a deep dark red.

It's going to be a cold night.....but it's worth it for more days like today!

Field Walk

After a weekend visiting family, it was nice to return home - all the more so because it was dry and the sky was (mainly) blue.

While we were away some daffodils had come out and soon the garden will be splashed with yellow.

Wellies on, I headed across the fields, it was really wet underfoot, at times the grass seemed to be just a thin layer floating on top of a bed of mud. There are usually Greylag Geese by the score at this time of year, but today there were some Canada Geese - heading north I suppose - hoping for better weather.

They had been down at the sandy edge of the burn and their footprints looked like arrows pointing the way.

So I crossed over into the next field - stopping only to splash my wellies clean in the burn.

The cows were walking out across the estuary, following the tide out - I wondered if the grass tasted salty? Were they eating seaweed?

The light was starting to fade as I headed back - but the hours of daylight are really stretching out.

It's nice to go away, but it's nicer to come back home.

Short and Sweet Saturday

Slightly Foxed arrives every quarter and I fall asleep marvelling at all the gems of books that I have yet to read.

Chasing the winter blues

For a brief spell this morning we had blue skies and sunshine.....what bliss. So the cat and I headed up the hill and while Evie explored, I soaked up some sun on the swing seat tucked up in the trees. I tried to pretend that I wasn't wearing three jumpers and a scarf.

It was lovely to lie back and look up through the trees and for a while banish the winter blues that caught me by surprise this week.

We went for a walk, my cat and I - well I did the walking and she mainly explored small nooks and crannys at the foot of every tree we passed.

The hill rises quite steeply at the back of the house, so you don't have to do much climbing before you get good views out over the estuary. Not that we stopped for long at any point, as there was always another fallen branch that needed a good scratch or another inviting hole to investigate.

The rain returned in the afternoon....couldn't it have stayed away for one day?

Trying to hold the blues at bay I did some crochet. One half of a Puff Stitch Round Pillow, the pattern is by Terry Day and was on the Red Heart site. I used the Cascade Lana D'Oro that I bought in Edinburgh back in December. I haven't used puff stitches before so it was a challenge, but I like the way it's turning out.

Short and Sweet Saturday

This block is called Northern Lights - we weren't lucky enough to be under clear skies on Thursday night to see the Aurora, so I thought I'd patch one instead!